Fountain Valley puts out the mat

Graphics

Taking a look around Orange County high school sports:

It's Five Counties weekend. The gigantic wrestling tournament, pretty much a preview of the CIF-Southern Section Championships, is today and Saturday at Fountain Valley High. After today's preliminary action is held on 11 mats, Saturday starts with the championship quarterfinals at 9 a.m. and concludes with finals at 5:30 p.m.

County wrestlers top-seeded in their weight classes are Colin Navickas of Marina at 160 pounds, Wyond Mills of Laguna Hills at 145, and Mason Kumashiro of Los Alamitos at 195. Kumashiro recently committed to Army.

Admission for Five Counties: Today, $6 for adults, $3 for students with valid student identification and $1 for children 12 and younger; Saturday it is $7 for adults, $4 for students and $1 for children. Expect a packed gym for the finals.

Savanna will induct Tony Okada into its Hall of Fame during its boys basketball game tonight. Okada, class of 1991, won consecutive state wrestling championships. His induction will occur at halftime of Savanna's home game against Anaheim.

Three county girls basketball teams are ranked No. 1 in their CIF-SS divisions: Mater Dei in 1AA, Orange Lutheran in 2A and El Dorado in 3AAA. Two are in CalHiSports' state top 20: Mater Dei is No. 1 and Troy is No. 10.

New Esperanza football coach Gary Bowers has strong credentials. He has been an assistant coach under some excellent head coaches such as John Barnes at Los Alamitos and Jeff Bailey at El Dorado. (Bailey now is head coach at Yorba Linda.)

Longtime football and basketball official Al Hackney is battling cancer. Hackney, 80, was an official for county games for 53 years and worked plenty of college games during that time. Chances are good that if you played in, coached or attended some varsity football and basketball games over the past several decades, you heard Hackney's whistle.

A combine for graduating senior football players who hope to play NCAA Division II or III or NAIA football will be held Feb. 23 at The Home Depot Center in Carson. Former UCLA coach Terry Donahue is among the instructors for the event that is free for players and high school and college coaches. For more information, visit cashowcase.org.

Many area-based all-star football games are played in January. The county all-star game traditionally is a summer game. The Brea Lions Club, organizers of the game, is considering moving the game to January but must consider several items such as availability of practice fields and multi- sport athletes.

Also being surveyed is adjusting the boundary that divides the north and south teams. Pushing the boundary southward to Edinger Avenue would move Foothill, Tustin and others to the north. Lowering the boundary farther south to Warner Avenue would also move Mater Dei to the north.

Thomas Duarte, a Mater Dei football receiver/linebacker who was the 2012 county offensive player of the year, will take an official recruiting visit to USC, Mater Dei coach Bruce Rollinson confirmed. Duarte has committed to UCLA. The football letter-of-intent signing period begins Feb. 6. The Duarte-USC trip information was tweeted by Greg Biggins, who is the national recruiting analyst for Fox Sports and Scout.com.

Rollinson suggests the football signing period should be in September so players could get it out of the way and enjoy their senior seasons. Basketball signing period is in early November, before players' senior season begins.

A recent batch of baseball commitments: Senior infielder Harrison White of St. Margaret's to Yale; and three Fountain Valley players — sophomore catcher Mike Hickman to Oklahoma State, junior outfielder Brock Lundquist to Long Beach State and junior shortstop Dan Pazlaff to Oregon.

The California Coaches Association's choices for Southern California coaches of the year included Mission Viejo's Bob Johnson in football and Mater Dei's Chris Segesman for water polo.

Sonora had an enthusiastic and well-organized student cheering section Wednesday for its home game against Troy. The champion of student cheering sections remains Servite's, which has embraced the “Be Loud, Be Proud, Be Positive” standard that all of the better cheering sections must have.

User Agreement

Keep it civil and stay on topic. No profanity, vulgarity, racial
slurs or personal attacks. People who harass others or joke about
tragedies will be blocked. By posting your comment, you agree to
allow Orange County Register Communications, Inc. the right to
republish your name and comment in additional Register publications
without any notification or payment.